The book is obviously still out on Brad Stevens the NBA coach, but Brad Stevens the guy at his introductory press conference is pretty impressive.

Above is the video from Steven’s press conference introducing him as the new Celtics head coach, with plenty of Danny Ainge talking about the move as well.

Here are a couple highlights:

Stevens on Rajon Rondo: “There is no bigger fan of Rajon Rondo than me,” Stevens said. “The way he plays, his instincts, his way to make other people better, he sees plays ahead of the play, he’s an incredibly talented person and everyone I’ve talked to has raved about how intellectual he is.”

Celtics GM Danny Ainge on Stevens: “Brad was my first choice. I have watched and admired his poise, his intelligence. His teams, their effort, their execution under pressure. And I’ve always looked at him the last few years as a guy that was a great candidate to be a head coach, never really thinking that it was going to be this soon in Celtic history, but was a guy that I had targeted for a long time as a potential great coach.”

1. Stevens savvy compliments and ego fluffing of Rondo will either a. start their relationship off right or b. make it easier for Ainge to hold value in trading Rondo. Either way, a wiley veteran play by a young rookie coach. impressive.

Brad Stevens seems to me like the kind of coach that can squeeze the absolute utmost potential out of his players. In the NBA it will always be about talent vs team. You need to have a certain amount of pure talent to have any chance of winning, but more importantly you need to develop an efficiency as a team. A few years ago, the Dallas Mavericks showed how a great team can be victorious against great talent in the Miami Heat. Brad Stevens is the kind of coach that will develop a good team despite not having the best talent…

Stevens is a young, smart coach. I just don’t see him succeeding in the NBA, particularly in Boston. I mean if Rondo gave an established, respected coach like Doc Rivers the creeps, he would never listen to Stevens.http://wp.me/p1gCK6-FS

Although there are still some Celtics fans begrudging the trades of aging veterans, I think it’s easy to see that Ainge actually DOES have a vision for the Celtics and has done a tremendous job stockpiling assets – not the least of which is a smart and savvy coach

That being said, Rick Pitino is among the greatest college coaches of all time – yet failed to adapt his style to the NBA. Something tells me Stevens hasn’t overlooked that.

All in all I think all these trades have worked out well for all teams involved – the Celtics respected veterans get to contend, Doc gets to coach a contender too (and it’s a crime that Stern wouldn’t allow the Clippers to add Celtics players as well) – and the Celtics have a good young coach to develop a young team that will get stronger when Ainge uses a half dozen draft picks either as is, or as trade bait

I have to give the Celtics credit. They know how to hansle their business.

I just had to look up the names of the owners of the team. I know the names of most owners in a few leagues. Not the Celtics. They somehow have managed to really let the trail of accountability end at Ainge.

Really, ask yourself the name of a Celtics owner. It’s impressive how much they’ve kept their names out of the media especially with a recent championship and the dismantling of the team recently.